414 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



LETTER IV. 



THE ADAPTATION OF THE SOILS, HERBAGE, &c. OF THE SOUTHERN 

 STATES TO SHEEP HUSBANDRY, CONTINUED. 2. OF THE MIDDLE OR 

 HILLY ZONE. 3. OF THE MOUNTAIN REGION. 



Climate, Soils, and Productions of the Middle or Hilly Zone — Its evident Adaptation to Sheep Husbandry 

 ...The Mountain Region. . .Altitudes ofditt'erent Ranges and Peaks — Their general Shape — Freedom from 

 Rocks, Precipices, «5i.c.. .Table Lands— Their Geological Formations — Products. . .Mr. Clingman's Letter 

 describing the Roan and other Mountains in North Carolina. . .Mr. Buckley's Counler Statements. . .Mr. 

 Earle's Description of the Mountains in Henderson and Rutherford Counties, North Carolina. . .Col. Cols- 

 ton's Statements in relation to the Mountains in Berkley County, Virginia. . .Hon. A. Stevenson's in rela- 

 tion to the Blue Ridge, and the Mountains in the South-west of Virginia — Hon. W. L. Goggin's in relation 

 to the same... Judge Beatty's Account of Sheep Husbandry on the Cumberland Mountains— Mr. Kramer's 



Mr. Buckley's Views in relation to the North Carolina Mountains examined and objected to. . .Climate 



of the Roan and others compared with that of the Grazing Lands of New-York. . .Statistics showing the 

 Forwardness of the Seasons and the Temperature in New-York. . .Etfect of P^levation on Temperattire 

 On Vegetable Productions. 



Dear Sir : The middle or liilly zone is liigh, dry, healthy, and has a 

 mild and, compared with the North, equable climate.* Its soils possess 

 the ingredients due to its formation — disintegrated gi-anite — and are far 

 more fertile than those of the lower zone. Sometimes on the summits of 

 the hills they are poor and thin, and there are occasionally extensive ranges 

 of poor land, as in Virginia ; but as a general thing, they vary from fair to 

 good ; and on the bottom lands of some of the rivers and larger creeks, 

 they possess remarkable fertility. The valleys, however, are generally 

 narrow, and are everywhere the bed of streams, which abundantly water 

 this whole region, and furnish inexhaustible facilities for mills and manu- 

 factories. The slight cohesion of the soil, aided by the face of the country 

 and the system of tillage pursued in many parts of it,t render it peculiarly 

 subject to washing by heavy rains. The hill-sides are frequently cut into 

 deep gullies, rendering aration difficult, | and the surface soil is washed 

 into the valleys and into the beds of the creeks, not only impoverishing the 

 high lands, but, by impeding the courses of the streams, in some regions 

 converting those of the valleys into unhealthy marshes. |I 



Grasses suited to the climate flourish /c?tc// .foir?/, and on lands not ut- 

 terly worn out, throughout all this region ; and there is little doubt that 

 every variety which could be acclimated on the sands of the lower zone, 

 could be more readily acclimated here — and probably various othei's. The 

 pea succeeds in nearly every situation ; oats also form a valuable ma- 

 nuring crop in some parts ; while on many of the alluvial bottoms, such, 

 for example, as the Blackjack lands of South Carolina — rye grows luxuri- 

 antly, answering a valuable purpose either for grain, manure, or for winter 



* The range of the thermometer is sometimes 6(P to 75° in a single month (March or .\pril') in New- 

 York ! 



t That is, a constant succ/'ssion of clean tillage crops, such as cotton, com, and tobacco. 



J The Fishin" Cre<'k Aijncultiiral Society, in their Report before quoted from, say : "The only really 

 Waste land we nave; is our old fields, many of which are so washed and gullied as to be absolutely irre- 

 claimable." Mr. Ruflin says that "the destruction both of soil and of fertility has been enormous" from 

 this cause. 



II " The country was, at first, as its features indicated, nearly free from malaria and nil its noxious effects. 

 Put as soon as the incessant and injuilicious use of the plow ca»ised the soil to be washed from the hilly 

 prounds into the bottoms, the before unobstriK'tcd clean bordered channels of all the small streams were 

 filled and clogged with earth, and veiiel.ible rubbish, and finer matter, ami the adjacent low lands were 

 thereby rendered swampy. The wasliing of the high land earth into the valleys so altered the original sur- 

 face level as to kill the trees ; and their decay, an<l, later, the obstructions by their fallen trunks, increased the 



pcneral evil I infer " that these eauVes "have mainly served to nourish malaiin and increase the 



niulignifv of disease." [Ruflin's Ag. Survey of S. C., 1643, p. y6.J 

 (S4(i) 



